Who's That? Behind Blue Eyes

As we close out our second week special, “Who’s That?,” we leave you with a cover of one of my favorite songs by The Who: “Behind Blue Eyes.” Who am I kidding? I like most of The Who’s songs. Pete Townshend began writing the song after being tempted by a groupie. Having the strength to resist, he began by writing the song’s bridge:

When my fist clenches, crack it open
Before I use it and lose my cool;
When I smile, tell me some bad news,
Before I laugh and act like a fool.
And If I swallow anything evil,
Put your finger down my throat;
And If I shiver, please give me a blanket.
Keep me warm, let me wear your coat.

“Behind Blue Eyes” was the second single “Who’s Next” and peaked in the US at #34.

Today’s cover comes from a Dutch symphonic metal band, “Within Temptation,” and features Sharon den Adel on lead vocals. The lyrics were changed to match a female protagonist. To celebrate their 15th anniversary in 2012, Within Temptation recorded 15 cover songs for Belgian radio station Q-Music.

During the following year, the band released 11 of these songs from the session on a CD, as “The Q-Music Sessions.” “Behind Blue Eyes” made the cut for one of the inclusions. It was not, however, released as a single. In my opinion, Within Temptation’s rendition is one of the better covers of this Who classic.

Who's That? Squeeze Box

In 1975, The Who issued their seventh studio LP, “The Who by Numbers.” Two singles were subsequently released in the US: “Squeeze Box” and “Slip Kid.” While “Slip Kid” failed to chart in any country except with a dismal showing at #72 in France, “Squeeze Box” did much better with a showing at #16 in the US, #10 in the UK, and at number one in Canada. Pete Townshend really shows his talents on guitar, piano, banjo, and squeeze box. Specifically, I love his guitar and banjo work on this number.

Fast forward to London in 1997 and Sheryl Crow pays homage to The Who by performing “Squeeze Box” live. Now Crow is very talented and can play every instrument that Townshend plays (but not as bombastic); however, she chose the accordion as her weapon of choice to attack this Who classic. The band is tight as well with the lead guitar and mandolin being standout instrumentalists.

It is a pity that Crow hasn’t released a studio version of this song.

Who's That? Love, Reign o'er Me

From the 1973 rock opera “Quadrophenia,” The Who’s “Love, Reign o’er Me” remains one of the band’s better-known selections even though the original single peaked at #76 on the Hot 100. The title is a play on words, as Pete Townshend took the inspiration from Meher Baba who believed that rain was a blessing from God. Even the original version opens with the sound of rain and the lyrics reference rain over reign. Perhaps the title indicates that Jimmy, the protagonist of “Quadrophenia,” isn’t beckoning for love to rain on him, but rather he is wanting love to reign over him.

Music critic Mark Deming believed that Roger Daltrey was at the peak of his singing career with the “Quadrophenia” album in general and “Love, Reign o’er Me” in particular. It would be difficult for any vocalist to duplicate Daltry’s performance. Eddie Vedder, however, tried and succeeded with Pearl Jam’s 2007 rendition. While Vedder’s voice is lower than Daltry’s and he often strains to hit the high notes, he reaches his intended goal. His lower timbre gives “Love, Reign o’er Me” a distinctive character.

While the original Who version is referenced in the movie, “Reign over Me,” Pearl Jam’s version plays over the credits. When I saw this movie about post traumatic stress disorder, I automatically realized that it wasn’t The Who, so I waited for and waded through the credits to see who had recreated this classic. Pearl Jam’s version peaked at #32 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Good stuff.

Who's That? Won't Get Fooled Again

Day four of our “Who’s That?” feature with another cover a classic Who song. The original version of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” charted in the US at #15, and it was the fourth highest charting Who single in the US, as it was outpaced by “I Can See for Miles,” “See Me, Feel Me,” and “Who Are You.” “Won’t Get Fooled Again” was the final cut on my favorite Who LP, “Who’s Next.”

Today’s cover is by the late Richie Havens from his last album “Nobody Left to Crown.” The album was released in 2008, five years before Havens passed away. It is a slightly slower acoustic version of this classic Who rocker. Stephanie Winters emulates the synthesize on the original during parts of the recording. The song also features Keith Christopher on bass and Shawn Pelton on drums. Richie Havens and Walter Parks are both featured on guitar, Parks also plays some of the original synthesizer parts on his guitar as well. 

Not your typical Who cover, but I think you’ll like Havens’ take on Townshend’s composition. Enjoy.

Who's That: Join Together

Are you ready Steve? Uh-huh. Andy? Yeah. Mick? Okay. Who could forget the immortal beginning to The Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz?” Remember this glam-rock band from the ‘70s . . . well, they’re still out there – well actually two versions of the band. For a while, there was a third edition of The Sweet – all different bands bearing the name and led by a different former member of the original 70s unit.

Of the two versions of The Sweet, one led by Andy Scott is based in the UK and the other under the leadership of Steve Priest is in North America. Today, we’ll discuss Andy Scott’s Sweet and their 2012 rendition of The Who’s classic 1972 single “Join Together.”

Although Sweet’s version of “Join Together” is good, this is a song that would be difficult for any band to duplicate, no matter how talented. Peter Lincoln’s lead vocal is accentuated by Andy Scott’s  excellent guitar work, but I am missing the jaw harps and harmonicas. Andy Scott’s Sweet’s version failed to chart as a single and is found on their self-released “New York Connection” CD. The Who’s original peaked at #17.

Who's That? I Can't Explain

You may remember the name Yvonne Elliman – she had her start singing in the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar. Her first single, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” peaked at #28 in the US; unfortunately, Helen Reddy’s cover outpaced the original in the chart wars. Following her tenure with the rock opera and her first solo career, she joined Eric Clapton’s band as a backup vocalist and appeared on five of his releases in the 1970s. The work with Clapton landed her a contract with RSO Records and Elliman scored a number one record with “If I Can’t Have You.”

In addition, Elliman had several other Top 40 hits such as “Love Me,” “Hello Stranger,” and “Love Pains.” During her earlier solo years, Elliman recorded a cover The Who’s “I Can’t Explain.” While not technically the first Who single, as they recorded Zoot Suit as The High Numbers, “I Can’t Explain” was their first release under their new name.

Chided by The Who’s management to write original music, Pete Townshend locked himself in his room listening for lyrical inspiration from an eclectic group of artists. Instrumentally, however, he was drawn to The Kinks. When you compare “I Can’t Explain” to the early Kinks’ records, you can hear the direct influence.

Although a fantastic rendition of this Who classic, Elliman’s 1973 single failed to chart in the US or the UK. The song was featured on her second solo LP, “Food of Love.” By the way, Pete Townshend plays lead guitar on this track. How great is that? The single and album were released in the UK on Deep Purple’s label: Purple Records. In the US, MCA picked up the option for Elliman as she had been under contract to MCA’s Decca Records for “Jesus Christ Superstar” and her self-titled debut album.

Who's That? I Can See For Miles

It’s no secret that one of my favorite bands is The Who. While I have written about a number of their recordings and covers of the same, I have dedicated this month’s second week’s special to several other artists’ renditions of Who classics under the name of “Who’s That?”

Our first “Who’s That?” tune is one that originally appeared the band’s third album: “The Who Sell Out.” This was the first Who album I owned and “I Can See for Miles” remains one of my favorite cuts. As a single, the tune peaked at #9 in the US. As with many of the CSI franchise using Who songs, “I Can See for Miles” was the theme for CSI-Cyber.

I wanted to buy limited rights of the original recording for a regional TV commercial I was producing back in 2001, but Essex Music and Universal refused my request. Pity, it would have made a great commercial with the music. We went another direction with a song we had written and recorded for the commercial, but “I Could See for Miles” would have been a killer tune the message we were sending.

As for today’s selection, we have a 2014 release by Raul Midón from his CD “Don’t Hesitate.” Midón, who is blind, plays guitar and sings on this cut. The tune was recorded in his home studio that alleviates the need for a separate engineer and allows Midón complete control of the recording process. This is a fantastic rendition and Midón’s acoustic guitar and his strong vocals are powerful enough to do the ultimate justice for this classic.

Dog Days: If Dogs Run Free

Back in 1972, I got the cassette of Bob Dylan’s “New Morning” cassette at F.W. Woolworths. One of my favorite cuts on this album is the jazz influenced, beat poetry named “If Dogs Run Free” that closed out side one. I was anxiously looking for some more songs for dog days and found this classic by Dylan.

Although released in 1970, Dylan neglected to perform “If Dogs Run Free” in concert until thirty years later in 2000. The jazzy piano was supplied by Al Kooper and the female scat singing is courtesy of Maeretha Stewart. Ed Ward’s review in Rolling Stone mused, “‘If Dogs Run Free’ puts me in mind of a beatnik poetry reading at the Fat Black Pussy Cat Theatre in Greenwich Village.” Great stuff – “If dogs run free, why not we across the swooping plain?”

Dog Days: Atomic Dog

When we think of dog songs, the granddaddy of them all is from one of the strangest, most innovative, and funkiest artist to allow a needle to drop on his recordings: George Clinton. The song was his R&B classic “Atomic Dog.” Before embarking on his solo career in 1982, Clinton was the mastermind and leader of the twin funk bands: Parliament and Funkadelic, both of whom had evolved from the doo-wop group The Parliaments.

If you hadn’t heard of George Clinton prior to 1982, “Atomic Dog” was your introduction. This synth and harmonizer laced funk classic, from his first solo LP “Computer Games,” brought Mr. Clinton to the forefront. Supported by a creative video, this song had an interesting chart presence for a tune that was so well known.

While it was a #1 hit Urban Contemporary hit, its performance in the clubs was lackluster with the 12 inch single only charting at #38. Contemporary Hit Radio, aware of the songs influence, was late to add the record. It only made it to #101 on Billboard’s pop charts. I know the station where I worked didn’t play it; but in our defense, Capitol Records never asked us to play it either. Looking back, I think this was a colossal mistake on theirs and my part for missing this one.

Bow-wow-wow-yippy-oh-yippy-a. Bow-wow-yippy-oh-yippy-a.

Dog Days: Atlanta Rhythm Section

We are in the midst of the dog days of summer, and to celebrate (or at least) realize this time of year, our Second Week Special reminds us of this part of the season. The term “dog days” has nothing to do with Fido, Rover, or Lassie – the name came from the time of year when the constellation Canis Major begins to rise in the night sky with Sirius, the Dog Star, becoming visible. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky (sans the sun) and the ancients attributed all kinds of issues with the Dog Star.

For our first song, we feature Atlanta Rhythm Section’s song “Dog Days.” When I began thinking of this topic about three weeks ago, this was the first song to come to mind. The title cut from ARS’ 1975 album of the same name, the single was not released until 1977. Being the album’s only single, it is beyond me why Polydor waited two years to issue it as a single or even at all. In fact, two singles from the next album “Red Tape” were released prior to “Dog Days.”

Atlanta Rhythm Section states that the song “Dog Days” was “[a] classic. Dean Daughtry's keyboard leads [Ronnie] Hammond's vocals through a melody that rises and falls, with lyrics that capture images of life in the South during the heat of summer. At the end of the second chorus, the song suddenly and dramatically changes tempo, and guitarist Barry Bailey takes over, leading the band into a driving musical interlude before returning to a closing keyboard coda.” I couldn’t have said it better.

Written by producer Buddy Buie, drummer Robert Nix, and keyboardist Dean Daugherty, “Dog Days” wasn’t a Top 40 hit. It peaked at #64. The band considers the album “Dog Days,” their fourth, as their “first masterpiece and an album that still stands with their best.” The album was my first from ARS – a band that evolved from the Classics IV and Mylon LeFevre’s Holy Smoke.

Charades of Deep Purple: Black Night

I never thought that I would say that I liked a cover of a Deep Purple song better than the original, but see if you agree my assessment of today’s “Charades of Deep Purple” selection. Released in 2013, the metal band Monument recorded “Black Night.” The original was Deep Purple’s highest charting single in the UK; however, it failed to chart in the US, as it was lost in the shuffle of the band switching from Tetragrammaton Records to Warner Brothers.

The single was released for the sole purpose of honoring the late Jon Lord who passed away the previous year. All proceeds were donated to Lord’s favorite charity The Sunflower Jam. Since it was tribute to Lord and Monument didn’t have a keyboardist, they enlisted the talents of Bob Katsionis – the from Firewind to tickle the plastics.

I especially like the twin guitar leads on this version of the tune and the delay at the end of the song.  Great stuff. 

Charades of Deep Purple: Highway Star

“Machine Head,” the album that launched Deep Purple into being the major influence on metal music, was released during the spring of 1972 and it changed rock history. When you dropped the needle on the vinyl, the first tune that emanated from your speakers was “Highway Star.” This up-tempo rocker was written as a fluke when a reporter asked Ritchie Blackmore how the band composed its material.

Blackmore picked up his acoustic guitar and began noodling some Bach inspired runs and vocalist Ian Gillan began singing – improvising the lyrics on the spot. Deep Purple worked on the tune and played it for the very first time that evening at a gig in Portsmouth, England. The rest is history.

Today’s “Charades of Deep Purple” cut includes former Purple member Glenn Hughes on lead vocals and bass, Steve Vai shining on guitar, and Chad Smith pounding the drums. While Hughes had performed the tune live with Deep Purple, his tenure with the band began 15 months after the release of “Machine Head.”

This version of “Highway Star” was a bonus track on the 40th anniversary tribute to “Machine Head” called “Re-Machined: A Tribute to Deep Purple's Machine Head.” A live version of “Highway Star” by Chickenfoot appeared as one of the CD’s regular tracks.

Although not credited as one of the main players on the cut, I would be remiss not to mention the keyboardist who channeled the late Jon Lord, who died a few months before this album was released in September 2012. Lachy Doley overdubbed the organ parts and played his Hammond M-3 organ through a Marshall amp much like Lord did with his Hammond C-3. It’s too bad he didn’t get full credit on this cut as the organ is part of the glue that holds it together.

Charades of Deep Purple: Child in Time

The Deep Purple song “Child in Time” has evolved over the years from its beginning as an It’s a Beautiful Day’s instrumental “Bombay Calling” to our current “Charades of Deep Purple” rendition by Stary Olsa. Hailing from Belarus, Stary Olsa (who are named for a Belarusian stream) typically play medieval music from the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania – a rather large territory that included parts of a number current Eastern European countries.

When not doing songs from antiquity, Stary Olsa also tries their hands at a number of rock songs from a variety of genres. One of those is Deep Purple’s “Child in Time,” which originally appeared on their LP “In Rock.” What I find interesting is the instrumentation. “Child in Time” features the following members of the band and their respective instruments:

• Alieś Čumakoŭ on vocals and gusli (an Eastern European zither).
• Maryja Šaryj on fipple flute and shawm.
• Illia Kublicki on lute and cittern.
• Zmicier Sasnoŭski on Belarusian bagpipes.
• Siarhiej Tapčeŭski on bass drum.
• Aliaksiej Vojciech on dumbek.

What I am particularly amazed by is the clarity of the gusli. It is basically a scaled down zither which uses the fingers and thumb of the left hand to dampen strings to play certain chords much like the chord buttons on an autoharp. This is truly an ancestor of the modern autoharp.

I hope you like this unusual arrangement of this classic Deep Purple tune.

Charades of Deep Purple: Smoke on the Water

For our third installment of “Charades of Deep Purple,” here’s a really different version of “Smoke on the Water.” While I think most every teenage rock band has learned this song, none do it quite the way that Surath Godfrey and Victor Chen have recorded this song. This is a brilliant blues tinged version that features the slide guitar and backup vocals of Chen and the lead vocals and percussive guitar by Godfrey.

I don’t know much about these artists, but they make their home in Singapore. While this is not a studio quality recording, that isn’t important – the arrangement is. There is one notable mistake in the lyrics – Godfrey sings “Montfort” instead of “Montreaux.” I can forgive that. This is a nice change of pace for this rock classic that originally appeared on Deep Purple’s “Machine Head” LP.

Charades of Deep Purple: Strange Kind of Woman

It’s day two of our look at Deep Purple covers that I call “Charades of Deep Purple.” During this week, we’ll be listening to covers that amazingly sound close to the original recordings, as well new arrangements of these classic Deep Purple cuts. Originally appearing the US version of the “Fireball” album, “Strange Kind of Woman” was always one of my favorite cuts.

While I found several good versions of “Strange Kind of Woman,” I opted to go with a different arrangement by Richie Kotzen. Kotzen has been a member of Poison and Mr. Big. He is currently with The Winery Dogs. Also to Kotzen’s credit are his solo recordings – 21 albums in all.

His unique version of “Strange Kind of Woman,” however, is found on the compilation: “Black Night: Deep Purple Tribute According to New York” that was released in 1997. It’s a nice take on the original with Kotzen’s own mark on the tune. To hear the original, see my post from 2010 “Deep Purple before Smoke on the Water.”

Charades of Deep Purple: Wring That Neck

I had quite a few positive comments regarding my last month’s Second Week Special, “Rolling Clones” – a look at covers of Rolling Stones’ tunes. I’ve decided to do it again with another great rock group: Deep Purple. As a play on the title of their debut LP “Shades of Deep Purple,” I’ve decided to call it “Charades of Deep Purple.”

For the first post, I have a version of “Wring that Neck” – an instrumental that was found on the Deep Purple’s second LP, “The Book of Taliesyn.” Those of us who owned the original US release on Tetragrammaton Records know the song as “Hard Road.” The name change came from the execs at Tetragrammaton who thought that “Wring that Neck” was a little violent for American tastes. I always thought that the neck it referred to was Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar neck.

For today’s feature, here’s The Kings of Cerveza, an Austrian rock band that does a yeoman’s job in recreating this very difficult tune. While not as good as the original studio version, doing this song live and as good as The Kings of Cerveza have done it is a credit to their talent. Hats off go to keyboardist Dietmar Gamperl and guitarist Reini Schöpf who do an excellent job of respectfully emulating Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore.

If you want to hear another interesting take on “Wring that Neck,” check out my post from 2011 where I featured It’s A Beautiful Day’s interpretation. They named it “Don and Dewey” and the post explains the source of the name and the reason for this very unique version of “Wring that Neck.”

Rolling Clones: Can You Hear Me Knocking

For our final “Rolling Clones” selection we bring you a tune that originally appeared on The Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers” album from 1971 – “Can You Hear Me Knocking.” Today’s remake is from the 2010 Santana release “Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time” – an album that features some of the best guitar songs and vocals by numerous guests.

I can remember hearing the original of this the first time as I didn’t have the album. One night in 1974, I was recording some music off air from WAMX in Ashland, Kentucky. The station had the greatest selection of album rock courtesy of the jocks’ own record collections. Needless to say, I fell asleep and this was the last cut before the tape ran out. I had no idea the identity of the artist nor did I know the name of the song. Since Google hadn’t been invented, I couldn’t search for it by using the lyrics. When I finally got “Sticky Fingers,” I discovered this long unknown but favorite track.

Instead of guitars by Mick Taylor and Keith Richards and vocals by Mick Jagger, the song features Carlos Santana and Tommy Anthony and vocals by Scott Weiland who fronted the Stone Temple Pilots. While the remake has an impromptu jam, it is different than the one found on the Stones’ recording, which was inspired by Mick Taylor’s improvisation. While I like the original better, this is a very good take on this classic Rolling Stones’ track.

Rolling Clones: Tumblin' Dice

In the late 1970s, Linda Ronstadt was the female vocalist of the era. Beginning in 1975 with the #1 “You’re No Good,” she effortlessly charted with hit after hit.  Besides that, she was easy on the eyes, and that is always a plus for a talented performer of any gender. Her triple platinum, eighth studio album, “Simple Dreams,” produced a number of hit records that were covers of other artists’ material. Beginning in 1977, she charted with Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou” (#3), Buddy Holly’s “It’s So Easy” (#5), and Warren Zevon’s “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” (#31).

In 1978, Asylum decided to release two separate promo singles E45479-A “Tumblin’ Dice” and E45479-B “I Never Will Marry” to different radio audiences. Although the traditional “I Never Will Marry” is often erroneously reported as the A-side, the song is clearly identified as the B side in the numbering of both the promotional and commercial singles.

While “I Never Will Marry” didn’t place on the pop charts (and why would it?), this ballad hit #30 on the Adult Contemporary side and made it to the Top Ten on the country charts where it peaked at #8. The actual “A” side, “Tumblin’ Dice,” was the choice of Top 40 radio.

Her remake of this Rolling Stones’ classic garnered airplay and peaked at #32 on the Hot 100. Six years earlier, The Stones had a Top Ten hit with “Tumblin’ Dice” and took this first single from “Exile on Main Street” all the way to #7. In addition to the single’s success in America, Ronstadt’s version charted in Canada at #35. A live version also made it to the soundtrack to the 1978 film “FM.” It is the only cover song in our “Rolling Clones” feature that charted.

According to Ronstadt, Mick Jagger suggested that she add some heavier songs to her repertoire. Since her band was already playing “Tumblin’ Dice” as an instrumental for sound checks, she asked Mick to supply the words and the rest, as they say, is history.

Rolling Clones: Paint It Black

Back in 1972, my brother tripled my record collection by giving me a box of LPs that he had expunged from his very large inventory. One of the albums was the 1967 release of “Winds of Change” by the reformed Animals. Since Eric Burdon and drummer Barry Jenkins were the only remaining members of the Animals who disbanded in 1966, the group was officially christened as “Eric Burdon & the Animals”; however, the album references the band as the “New Animals.”

“Winds of Change” was a new musical direction for Burdon who had moved from blues-based music to psychedelia with a heavy bent. The hit from the LP was “San Franciscan Nights,” which charted at #9. One of the other cuts on the album that caught my ear was Burdon’s rendition of The Rolling Stones’ classic “Paint it Black.” While the Stones hit the #1 position with “Paint it Black,” it was never released as a single by Burdon & the Animals.

In addition to Burdon and Jenkins, the lineup contained the following new members: Vic Briggs on guitar and piano, John Weider with guitar and violin, and Danny McCulloch on bass. During the time of the album’s sessions, Weider broke his wrist and Keith Olsen substituted on some of the album’s cuts.

This nearly six minute (the album has the time wrong at 6:20) rendition of the Stones’ original is not musically perfect. There are some glitches in this version. One, Eric Burdon is no Mick Jagger – his voice is powerful, but his pitch is often erratic. The instrumentation isn’t always together – I guess I am so used to the quantizing that occurs with electronic music, that I expect it with real musicians.

In addition, there is a guitar note at 3:39 that has always bothered me – it was probably intended, but to me, it sounds out of place. Listen closely in the recitation part and you can also hear a 60 cycle hum which was no doubt amp noise – something that was probably not noticeable on vinyl release.

While there are some technical issues and it really is on par with how the band sounded live, I still like this version. The addition of the Weider’s violin and the recitation sets Eric Burdon & the Animals apart from other covers of this tune.

Rolling Clones: Play With Fire

In looking for Rolling Stones covers by other artists, I found an acoustic version of “Play with Fire” by Michelle Branch. While it is one of the better known Stones’ ballads, “Play with Fire” was issued as a flip side to “The Last Side” and received some airplay in its own right. Unlike “The Last Time” that was propelled to the #9 position, the Stones’ version of “Play with Fire” only made it to #96.

Grammy winning Branch recorded “Play with Fire” in 2012, but it is uncertain whether it will appear on her yet unreleased album “West Coast Time.” As it stands, it’s not in the unofficial list of songs for the CD – so chances of making it to the album does not look good. The single is available for free download.

While her version doesn’t sport the harpsichord as found on the original, her version features a number of guitars, percussion, and bass. “Play with Fire” was produced by John Leventhal.